Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa

ose Cottage Cave is situated in the Grassland Biome in the foothills of the Maloti-Drakensberg mountain range, c. 6 km from the Caledon River that forms the present-day border to Lesotho. After first excavations in the 1940s and 1960s, the site was carefully excavated by Lyn Wadley (University of the Witwatersrand) between 1987 and 1998 and revealed a well-stratified Later Stone Age and Middle Stone Age sequence. Rose Cottage Cave provides a unique archaeological and palaeoenvironmental record from an inland setting and preserves abundant rock art. It was also the first archaeological site in South Africa where residue analysis was applied.

The Middle Stone Age sequence dated to MIS 5–3 has yielded abundant pre-Howiesons Poort, Howiesons Poort, and post-Howiesons Poort lithic material and evidence for ochre use. Knappers mostly exploited fine-grained raw materials (chalcedony, agate) in the form of small-sized pebbles available in secondary deposits but also used the locally available silicified sandstone. Faunal remains are not preserved in the MSA layers, but multiple charcoal analyses suggest shifts in vegetation regimes during the Pleistocene, with the pre-Howiesons Poort occupations reflecting relatively warm conditions during the MIS 5 compared to the cooler and drier MIS 4 and 3.

Since 2023, fieldwork at Rose Cottage Cave has resumed under the direction of Viola Schmid (Austrian Academy of Sciences) and Will Archer (National Museum Bloemfontein), followed by multidisciplinary studies, which include lithic use-wear and residue analyses carried out at TraceoLab.

Gibson, N. E., Wadley, L. & Williamson, B. S. 2004 – Microscopic residues as evidence of hafting on backed tools from the 60 000 to 68 000 Howiesons Poort layers of Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. South African Humanities 16: 1–11. https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC84748
Harper, P. T., 1997 – The Middle Stone Age sequences at Rose Cottage Cave: A search for continuity and discontinuity. South African Journal of Science 93: 470–475. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/AJA00382353_89
Hodgskiss, T. & Wadley, L., 2017 – How people used ochre at Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa: Sixty thousand years of evidence from the Middle Stone Age. PLoS ONE 12: 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176317
Lennox, S. & Wadley, L., 2022 – Middle Stone Age wood use in Rose Cottage Cave South Africa: Evidence from charcoal identifications. Quaternary International 611–612: 102–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.09.041
Schmid V. C., Wadley L., Brandl M., Guillemard I., Rhodes S. E., Taipale N., Witelson, D. M., Börner, M., Cnuts, D., Hodgskiss, T., Murungi, M., Nigst, P. R., Porraz, G., Puech, E., Rots, V., Stahlschmidt, M. C., Stelzer, S., Teyssandier, N., Tribolo, C., Val, A., van Schalkwyk, L. & Archer, W., 2024 – Renewed impetus for Stone Age research in the eastern Free State (South Africa) centred on Rose Cottage Cave. South African Archaeological Bulletin 79: 105–19. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.T2025020700004601124794880
Soriano, S., Villa, P. & Wadley, L., 2007 – Blade technology and tool forms in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa: The Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort at Rose Cottage Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 681–703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.06.017
Wadley, L., 1997 – Rose Cottage Cave: Archaeological work 1987 to 1997. South African Journal of Science 93: 439–444. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/AJA00382353_84
Wadley, L., 2023 – Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa. In Beyin, A., Wright, D. K., Wilkins, J. & Olszewski, D. I. (Eds.), Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa: Hominin behavior, geography, and chronology (pp. 1653–1662). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_108
Wadley L., de la Peña P. & Prinsloo, L. C., 2017 – Responses of South African agate and chalcedony when heated experimentally, and the broader implications for heated archaeological minerals. Journal of Field Archaeology 42: 364–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2017.1337438
Williamson, B., 1997 – Down the microscope and beyond: Microscopy and molecular studies of stone tool residues and bone samples from Rose Cottage Cave. South African Journal of Science 83: 458-464. https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA00382353_87

updated on 10/10/25

Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa

Further reading